


Appreciation 



ELOISE COOPER FOWLER 




Convri^htF ^^ f^ 

CCEffilGHT DEPOSm 



Verses of Love, Faith and Appreciation 



Verses 

of 

Love, Faith aad Appreciation 



By 
ELOISE COOPER FOWLER. 



BOSTON 
THE ROXBURGH PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. 



^^y 






^^ 






NOV 17 liiB 



©CI.A535744 



Copyrighted 1919 

By Eloise Cooper Fowler. 

Rights Reserved. 



DEDICATED TO 

My Angel-Mother, — whose loving spirit 
has hovered near me and helped and in- 
spired me in my work. 

Before passing on, she prophesied that 
America would be brought into the now 
world-war, and ever prayed that our 
President would be strengthened by trust 
in God. And I feel that she has taken her 
prayers before the throne of God. 

She loved her country well, and I feel 
that in some of the verses I have written 
I have fulfilled her desire — and God's. 



PRAYER BELLS ARE CALLING 

Hark to the sound! 
There's a call to us all! 

As ring the prayer bells 
At noon and at night: 

Hark to the sound ! 
Let hammer and broom fall! 

Haste to answer the appeal of the bells, 
E'er the dedicated time takes flight. 

i 

Hark to the sound! 
The bells calling to prayer! 

Calling to all to pray with unstinting 
ration 
For victory and peace in God's good time: 

Hark to the sound! 
Pray for our soldiers Over There; 

For our President and for our nation, 
And pray that Hun cruelty shall cease and 
Kaiseric crime. 



10 VERSES OF LOVE 

A PRAYER LETTER 

My angel-mother, you can look down and 

see 

Satan's archangel on this earth stalking; 

You can his devilish imps see 
On this land of our birth walking, 

Doing the archangel's death-dealing will, 
Obeying him with science, with skill. 

You can see our country is, so to speak, 
a honeycomb ; 
The spaces are filled by the archangel's 
imps, 

Who are paid by him to sting our coun- 
try with many a bomb — 
The treacherous, mean, hateful pimps ! 

Our country! that perhaps gave them 
birth. 
That welcomed them on our loved earth, 

That long did them nourish. 
Whose people have greatly helped them, 

Have been their friends, have even loved 
them, 
And have seen them flourish 

With no jealous eye — 
Without a thought they'd treachery try; 

Have watched them gather in the honey 
Without a pang, without even a ''go-hang.'* 



VERSES OF LOVE 11 

Without a thought they were Germans 
whose money 
Made here, in America, would go to the old 
country 
To be banked and later would cross the 
main 
Once more — back here to be used against 
the land 
In whose bosom they had so safely lain. 
Protected by America's laws, shielded by 
her great hand, H 

They were from aught that would them 
harm ; 
But they forgot all her benefits when 
Kaiser W. gave his alarm. 
He bade them form a society 
Whose members were to spy out the land 
That had made them rich, had given 
them such a glad hand. 

My angel-mother, loving only Germany, 
And Satan's archangel, their Kaiser, 

The members of this society 
Have indeed made him wiser 

As to a number of things — 
Things we would have kept from such a 
devil. 



12 VERSES OF LOVE 

But you can see (you who hover with 
angel wings 
Over me) that some imps have been caught 
and kept from further evil, 
And have been punished; others have 
been punished, too, 
(As of course they should be who would to 
death our country woo), 
For intent to blow up factories, bridges, 
to destroy wheat, 
Wheat that is so needed by those who do 
not live to eat. 
But who live to serve our country — 
Some who live to die for her dear sake. 
Oh, I pray that you who are near Jesus, 
so dear. 
Will ask Him with God, intercession to 
make 
That He will ever guide and help and 
keep 
The men who run such great riteks, but who 
know not fear — 
Our United States Secret Service men! 
the many tomes 
One could write about them, if that one 
knew all ! 
How watchful our Secret Service men 
must be of the devil-gnomes 



VERSES OF LOVE 13 

That fly to the archangel's imps to tell them 
all 
They ferret out about certain transports, 
even learn when they will sail ! 
The imps tell brother-imps when to be 
ready to blow a transport up ; 
And when the brother-imps are successful 
how bitter is the cup 
Those devils give many women, to drink — 
who are left to wail 
For their men-folks, their dear men-folks; 
their brothers, 
Their husbands, their sons, their lovers, — 
Who are in this world forever lost to 
them. 
How the devil-imps work! How they toil! 
To make some of these women wish they 
had never been mothers ! 
Some of the men sink to a watery grave, 
Some are found and buried in foreign 
soil, 
Where their women-folks cannot go as to 
do they so crave. 
May God comfort them. 



Dear angel-mother, I pray that Jesus will 
intercession make, 



14 VERSES OF LOVE 

With His Father, that our brave Secret 
Service men may henceforth ever ap- 
prehend in time 
Those who dare commit against man- 
kind any terrible crime: 
(One of the worst is to blow up a hospital 

ship, 
And they delight in pieces one to rip) ; 
The devils who work against our country- 
all 
Who would harm her. They work 
against our allied countries, too, 
Whose soldiers (as do ours) stand at arms 
to fight, and some to fall, 
For our sake as well as their own, who 
true 
To one and true to all, do fight 

For home and country, freedom and 
democracy, for the Right. 
Satan's archangel makes his soldiers fight 
against the good things 
We, and allies, fight for : How treacher- 
ously his soldiers fight! 
How loud with cheers his carrying voice 
rings 
Out when his soldiers a small victory 
gain 
Over our dear good soldiers fighting for 
the RIGHT!— 



VERSES OF LOVE 15 

On whom death-dealing shrapnel falls 
like rain, 
Who bravely die when die they must 

Looking- to God in whom they trust, 
Knowing that others will CARRY ON; 
will win 
At last, the great decisive victory over 
Kaiseric sin. 



m 



A TOAST 

Here's to our Secret Service men: Long 
lives to them! 

Here's to our allies' Secret Service men: 
Long lives to them ! 

All are of like caliber, I ween, true steel, 

Can't be bribed nor brow-beaten, but for 
woe for weal 

Throw heart and mind into their great 
work; 

Work that perhaps is a mystery to many 
who lurk 

In mind on the outside of things in under- 
standing all 



16 VERSES OF LOVE 

Our country is up against, though glad she 

threw off the thrall 
Of evil advisers v^ho sought but to gain 

her side 
To cut into our political party an entrance 

wide — 
For Germany's good and our undoing — 
Who ever secretly went about Hun-wooing, 
And who were caught by our Secret Service 

men so true, 
And by our government sent back to 

Germany looking so blue ! 



Our Secret Service men will guarantee 

those Hun-wooers never will get 

back 
To our dear country — they who cried: 

"Alas and alack ! 
We poor simps indeed met our match 
In United States Secret Service men, and 

we'll lift the latch 
Of America's Open Door never again. 

Never again 
Can we taste of her hospitality! Ever 

strain, ever strain 
As we may she will never again believe us, 
She will never again receive us; 
And we're almost sorry for our ill-deeds, 



VERSES OF LOVE 17 

For though we've gained prestige in Ger- 
many, we're more hateful than stink- 
weeds* 

To our former friends in America, whom we 
did quite love. 

And who liked us, though they scorn us now 
and feel quite above 

Us. Yes, we know that even the poorest 
American patriots born 

Hate us, and would spit upon us in their 
scorn." 

Here's to our Secret Service men: Long 

lives to them ! 
Here's to our allies' Secret Service men: 

Long lives to them ! 
Here's to their sweethearts: Long lives to 

them! 
Here's to their mothers : Long lives to them! 
Here's to their wives : Long lives to them ! 
Drink to their women-folks because these 

women, from worry, lose their sleep, 
And from their weary eyes troubled tears 

they weep ; 
Their men-folks' positions are to them a 

mystery . . . 
But it would never do for them to know 

Secret Service secrets. History 
Might read differently if they did! — 



18 VERSES OF LOVE 

So all Secret Service secrets must be kept 

hid; 
And let us pray, while we drink, 
That these women may never think 
Their men may be doing wrong. May a 

God-given light 
Shine into their minds, encouraging with its 

sight, 
Making them believe that all is well, and 

right. 



* Perhaps I malign "stink-weeds/" There 
is surely some good in them — th-'^y when 
prepared for (and bound on) a Spain help 
greatly to cure it. 



A SABBATH MORNING IN SUMMER 
OF 1918 

Never had I seen such a lovely Sabbath 

morning! and I believe 
My soul, while thrilling, was waiting to 

receive 
A message from its Maker that would help 

to retrieve 



VERSES OF LOVE 19 

A world at war ! Oh, but 'twas hard to feel 
The world was at war! and I had to think 

a g-reat deal 
Before I could say there was in it any weal. 
One great thing I knew it had done — 
It had made many better; nearly everyone 
Finer, because of the need to sacrifice 
For the benefit of others, of the need of true 

service. 
And most of the world had been made over 

almost in a trice ! . . . 



A gentle, but cool and delightful breeze 

Fanned into motion the bright green leaves 

Of all the oak and orchard trees, 

And made them whisper, in counsel wise, 

Of things of which I could only surmise, 

But as to understand one ever tries, 

I tried, and I thought they whispered of 

rain — 
Not once but again and again, 
And the thought brought to my heart — not 

pain — 
Joy ; for rain was needed that very day. 
And for it we had felt we must pray — 
That during waking hours our beseeching 

voices should not stay. 



20 VERSES OF LOVE 

Bees buzzed happily, in labor golden, 

among the flowers 
Not to them was it given to know as to 

hearts of ours 
That rain was sorely needed for our oat 

crop, 
Which must not fail that more wheat, to 

help soldiers go Over the Top. 
Could be sent OVER THERE— where in 

battle our soldiers (and allies) 

couldn't stop . . . 
For the Huns must be defeated . . . 

How welcome would be the first 

rain-drop ! 
Telling of more and more 
Raindrops to follow, and more and more, 
That would be more welcome than any had 

ever been before. 
For America was slated to feed the world. 
Except the enemy part that had hurled 
Nearly every Christian nation into war, 

caused their flags to be unfurled 
On gruesome, bloody battlefields. 
That once were green or golden with 

harvest yields. 

Butterflies flaunted their yellow, brown, 
black and white beauty 



VERSES OF LOVE 21 

Under God's deep bue sky, and they spoke 

of the duty 
Of the caterpillar, which, if it leaves its 

cocoon 
Before its time, — too soon — 
Develops no flying soul, with beauty to 

inspire a rune 

But exists as a crippled insect wandering- in 

pain 
Longing, ever longing, for a soul in vain. 
Will "Kaiser W." be like that insect? No; 

for he has a soul that for all the slain 
Of the world-war will have to account: On 

him lies all the blame! 
Ah, what a stain upon his name ! 

Male birds trilled happily, each to his mate ; 
They held counsel, too, to determine the 

training of their sedate 
Young! 'Twould not do to put off that 

training till too late ! 
Neither v^ill it do to put off the training 
Of human young too long, within their souls 

engraining 
Truth and honesty; upon their minds 

raining 
Words of splendid counsel, words of faith 

in God, 



22 VERSES OF LOVE 

To Whom should thanks be given for sus- 
tenance from the sod — 

To Whom we should ever pray, at dawn and 
before at night we nod. 

Children tripped along the country street 
On their way to Sunday School, to meet 
In the classroom, and their teachers to 

greet. 
Their faces so bright and shining! 
The girls' souls in innocence inclining 
Toward the opposite sex ; but not like vines 

entwining 
As the souls of the lover and his sweet- 
heart, on their way (not with the 

rest) 
From church to look at their newly finished 

nest, 
(Whose souls that night the parson did 

make one, 
After his preaching was over and praying 

done.) 

With a wireless 'phone to my ear, I heard 
the parson of the church upon tht 
hill 

Preach his morning sermon telling of 
God's Will. 

And he spoke of the war waging still. 



VERSES OF LOVE 2?- 

I felt I was in the church and I realized,. 

indeed, 
That the world is at war, and the need 
To pray for our soldiers and our allies' vi'hcy 

for us bleed. 

Was brought home to me with force; 
Praying for rain was a secondary matter. 

My mind did endorse 
All that the preacher said. . . . 
God would see that our world was fed, 
Because (and even on that Sabbath Day) 

our soldiers were fighting, 
The wrongs of others righting. 
The Christ's Holy Sword were sighting 
And to the children the preacher counsel did 

give 
That in their memories long will live. 

I turned again to the scene outside, not 

fully sensing 
The beauty about me ; my thoughts tensing 
On only the world at war; my spirit 

wrenching 
Away at its ties, longing to be Over There, 
Longing with agonized longing to help — 

not here where 
Duty for such as I lies, but there in the 

wear and tear 



54 VERSES OF LOVE 

Of war. I had to school myself severely 
To bring into submission my rebellious 

heart — for merely 
To say to myself you are doing 3^our best 

here wasn't enough. Drear'ly 
My spirits slumped. A robin called ''Cheer! 

Cheer! Cheer!" 
To me.. His chirping irritated me. "Cheer! 

Cheer! Cheer!" 
I mocked him. . . . Then I heard a 

pe-wee poignantly calling *'Phoe be, 

Phoe be, Phoe be, Phoe be, Phoe E 

be," 
And I knew why I felt so sad that even the 

tit mice's ''chickadee chickadee," 
Could not rouse my drooping spirits 
Nay, I felt I could hardly bear its 
Cheerfulness, though I admired it for its 

zeal; 
For it no woe existed, only weal. . . , 

Oh, the irony of it ! though rain was surely 
coming 

Just as surely as soldier-bands were drum- 
ming, 

And I should rejoice in answered prayer, 

I was depressed ! Because the sun seemed 
not anywhere 



VERSES OF LOVE 25 

That through the morning shone with 

bare- 
Faced joy upon the land, or in benediction 
Wise, and knowing that soon he'd hide, in 

friction 
With the elements. Oh, I questioned (Yet 

I knew) why? 
Why? Why? And yet again — why? 

Such is the effect of cloudy weather upon 

one's spirits, let one's will try- 
As hard as it may it won't conquer till, by 

and by. 
The sun shines again upon the land : 
My will took my spirit severely in hand, 
And caused me to thank God 
For His sure promise of rain upon the dry 

sod. 
But my depression remained, and my sad 
Thoughts were OVER THERE. Yet 

when rain came I was glad. 
I thought: If it is raining OVER THERE, 
It may be helping our soldiers (by hinder- 
ing the Boche). Oh, answered 
Prayer ! 
That broug:ht the revivine rain ! 
That saved the oats — the king-grain ! 
Oh, beneficent sun, when in joy it shone 
again ! 



26 VERSES OF LOVE 

Oh, when the sun shines upon a world at 
peace, 

To our spirits will come such glad release, 

To our hearts such joy they'll almost cease 

To beat! May God help us to bear our 
future joy 

As well as our present sorrow, nor the alloy 

Of his chastening entirely withold — for 
we'll need it to temper our joy. 

And let us pray that we will never slight 
Him again, 

As we did before war brought the unfor- 
gettable pain 

To our souls. He will ever reign 

The same High Judiciary Power : Godhead ! 

Judging the quick and the dead. 

Loving not best those who believe in 
MIGHT— instead 

Loving best those who believe in RIGHT. 



VERSES OF LOVE 27 



NIL DESPERANDUM (NEVER 
DESPAIR) 

Never despair ! though often sad and dreary ! 
Never despair! though often more than 

w^eary 
In v^ell doing, in good deeds; 
For you will find help for all your needs 
If you seek it from on High : 
God is there watching over you ; By 
His Power alone can comfort come : 
He watches over the birds and hears the 

bees hum. 
Think you He will ever forget man — 
His especial care since time began? 

Of course not, you answer: Then never 

despair! 
For many despairings are to your Father 

as the blare 
Of trumpets to sore ears ; 
But He is glad when alleluias He hears, 
So turn your words of despair — before their 

uttering — 



28 VERSES OF LOVE 

Into alleluias. Cease your muttering 
Over hard times, and (apparently) harder 

hearts ; 
Make your armor impervious to suspicious 

darts. 
Say and believe there is good in every mind, 
And if you search for it, it you'll surely find. 

Nil Desperandum (never despair) ! 
Even so little a thing as dull care 
Never was removed that v^ay, 
Nor will it be on any coming day! 
Despair hurts heart, nerves and mind, 
So be cheerful, however hard to be ; you'll 

find 
It'll pay. Never despair! never lose faith 

in God ; 
His far-reaching, chastening rod 
Is laid upon those He loves most. 
And He will never desert His Post. 

Nil Desperandum (never despair) ! is this 

1918 year 
Particularly applicable. We need cheer 
Now as we never needed it before. 
And we'll need it more and more; 
For we are at war. . . . 
Don't let despair be a bar 
To our winning it; 



VERSES OF LOVE 29 

Add to your ALL and your Bit 

By knocking out "giant despair" with the 

bomb of cheer: 
Make the bomb full of smiles and scatter 

them far and near. 

'Let your cheer go deep into soul and 

heart ! 
Let a good, smiling, invigorating part 
Emanate to others. — Let it go forth 
To them to prove your true worth! 
Nil Desperandum (never despair) ! 
Be cheerful! — a smile ever wear! 
Cast off the "long, solemn face" — 
Such before God or man will not find grace! 
God likes the beautiful, heroic smile. 
And before man, too, 'tis well worth while. 



TO AMERICAN WOMEN 

From the men who have their life-blood 

bled 
For you, and for whom you in return have 

shed 
Mournful tears of anguish, sorrowing tears 

of pain, 



30 VERSES OF LOVE 

There's a trumpet call comes again, 
That if you would once more go singing 
You must heed this call ringing, — 
Rinigng loudly, clearly : Buy Liberty Bonds. 
Buy; then just as free as graceful fronds, 
In breezes waving, on the wild fern tree 
You will, before long, forever and for- 
ever be. 

Freedom, rare 'spiritual flame, bids you rise 
And wipe the sad, sad tears from your eyes. 
Freedom bids you heart's-ease gain 
By saving, and saving, — both alone and in 

twain 
With another you have persuaded to find 
That by saving, and saving, her heart and 

mind 
Is eased; and that the future looks better, 

too; 
And she can one day go singing with you, 
And be as free as any frond on the wild- 
fern tree. 
Because she's saved for a Bond for Dear 
Liberty. 

Perhaps a sister-woman would like to buy 
A house; she can, in time, if she will try 
Hard to save for Liberty Bonds so precious ; 



VERSES OF LOVE 31 

And it's according to how much she saves 

how spacious, 
How large, her house will be: That is, it's 

according 
To how many Bonds she signs up for 

today. 
It's exciting, indeed to some — this hoarding 
Of change, that used to go one hardly 

knows where, so one can pay. 
On the installment plan, for a Bond or two, 

Or even three Bonds. 
A woman ''handling" a $1,500.00 income 

can, by using fairy wands 
Of Economics pay for at least five One 

Hundred dollar ones in one year. 
If a woman who has hardly any income can 

pay for one. Peer 
Among savers each American Woman 

should try to be. 
So she can help her country and herself by 

buying Bonds of Liberty. 

How unpatriotic it looks, how it makes it 

start the tear 
Of vexation! that there's many a woman 

who holds her husband dear, 
And wants to make a real home for him and 

herself, 



32 VERSES OF LOVE 

Who won't let him (and won't herself) sign 

for even one Bond ! On an unused 

shelf 
She places Liberty Bond literature, and for- 
gets it. 
She says, defiantly, that he and she have 

done their ''Bit" 
By knitting for the Red Cross, by joininglt 

last year, 
By the few dollars they have given to it this 

year. 
Do the women who do only their "Bit" not 

love their country? 
It looks as if they do not, however, it may 

really be. 
They had better sign now, for it doesn't pay 

to be wary 
On the Liberty Bond deal ; for wariness 

hurts only 
The ones wary. They had better sign now 

for all they can carry, 
On the installment plan. Why ! they can use 

the money 
They now use for candy, sodas and cakes 

that taste like honey; 
They don't need these luxuries, three, 
Nor rich puddings and heavy meats — they 

can cut out these "eats:" 



VERSES OF T.OVE 33 

They should show they're patriotic by buy- 
ing Bonds of Liberty. 

If you and you and you (every you) don't 

buy Bonds of Liberty, 
The Kaiser (The Beast) may rule this land 

so dear, so free. 

And your passion for freedom be con- 
strained — 

You and yours forever and ever be trained 
To repress all free speech from Right 
thinking, 

And all your dear liberties be but memories 

yes, unwinking 
The Kaiser may stare into your eyes as if 

he'd like to shrivel your soul; 
His heart is harder than hardened Pharaoh's 

of old. Oh, remember Toul ! 
(Many a woman's best loved one was there.) 

How brave were our good soldiers ! 
How treacherous the Boches ! (The 

Boches ill-deserve the name of sol- 
diers.) 
^o long as tkere is a peopled world, aiid 

read is history, 
It will be told how the Boche fought at 

Toul, and elsewhere, treacherously. 



34 VERSES OF LOVE 

Oh, lover of Freedom! if you would keep 

free, 
Buy another Bond for Sweet Liberty ! 

You don't want to he ruled as Germany's 

ruled today, 
There the vote of the Kaiser is supreme — < 

he says obey, 
And preachers preach as he says preach. 
The to-be-obeyed voice of this Satanic 

Majesty doth reach 
Professors, and as he commands they pre- 
sent and propound, 
And it reaches editors and tells them whal 

note to sound. 
This mad Kaiser is the state in Germany— 

the State! 
He even tells the citizen to take a second 

mate! 
Ye Gods . . . ! a man must support two 

wives 
And their children — dependent on one man 

mayhap twenty lives! 
That is, if he recognizes the dependency 
And does not force wives to his supporting- ; 
But in Germany certain men are upheld 
In laziness and do only the courting 
Such men's strength, it seems. 



VERSES OF LOVE 35 

Must be saved to help out the Kaiser. 
O! Women of America, do you not want 
To make these German women wiser? 
You and yours will buy America's Liberty 

Bonds, 
Rather than (perhaps) be held in Germany's 

Slavish Bonds. 

You know the Kaiser and his wolfhuns like 
blood pudding, and if they use the oil 

Refined from body-fat of slain soldiers, 
they'll probably boil 

The blood of murdered (by them) Ameri- 
cans — if they get a chance, 

Now that pigs are scarce. You know what 
he ordered done in France 

And in Belgium? Yes. Well, he's said, 
and maybe you know 

That he's said, he'll do worse in America: 
That blow, 

That terrible (possible) devastation, de- 
spoilation, asphyxiation, 

Outraging of girls and women— their cruci- 
fixion, 

You can prevent if you'll heed the trumpet 

calling 
To buy Liberty Bonds, — you can keep 
America from the Kaiser's mauling. 



36 VERSES OF LOVE 

You and you and you (every you) 
Buy; to yourselves be true. 

No, you don't want the Kaiser to rule 
In America; every American will be like a 

mule 
And kick away each Kaiser-bought-body- 

and-soul man 
To Kingdom come — before he gets a chance 

on our own Ian' 
To set a profaning foot. As sure as sets the 

sun, 
The shameless, frightful, mad-beast look of 

a Hun 
Is enough ; it makes one's blood to curdle, 
And you don't want to have to jump the 

hurdle 
For his sport ; and then crucified be, 
(While he laughs in glee 
At your agony.) 
You won't so sufifer if you'll buy Bonds of 

Liberty. 

Do you realize that, like huddled sheep be- 
fore their slaughter. 

The women of France, Poland and Belgium 
(How dear dvery daughter !) 



VERSES OF LOVE 37 

Have felt the cruel hand of the raping Hun? 
Every rising and every setting sun 
Has rose and set on their despair ; 
For the Hun ! the Hun ! he left his lair ! 
The Kaiser routed him out, we know, 
But the Hun was willing — yes, glad to go; 
For he'd been trained for that purpose, and 

made proud and ever 
Looked upon his poor civilian brother with 

a sneer — and never 
Gave him a helping hand, (even tried to 

push him into the gfutter) 
He felt so superior, the soldier-Hun ; now 

the poor civilian provides his bread 

and butter. . 



The civilian eats' bread made mostly of saw- 
dust. 
While the soldier-Hun goes satisfying his 

biood lust, 
The civilian doesn't quite understand 
What the soldier-Hun is fighting for, the 

Kaiser says land, 
Land that will the crowded civilian help— < 
If the civilan needs land, in Germany, 
It can be bought by other means than war, 
less dearlv. 



38 VERSES OF LOVE 

But the soldier-Hun is looking for his own 

reward ; hear him yelp 
As he goes pillaging. . . . We will his 

victims help — 
And he won't get land this time, 
Because the unholy war he's fighting is a 

crime 
Against all that God-fearing people hold 

sacred — against humanity • 
And because Americans are backing up 

their soldiers by buying Bonds of 

Liberty. 
It may seem as if he had got some coveted 

land, 
With Belgium occupied and Serbia stolen, 

and 
A part of Russia stolen also — (poor Russia, 

revolution-torn ; 
It seems as if pity for her should be in 

the heart of the hardest hearted man 

ever born), 
But American soldiers will help recover 

these lands, if backed by you 
And will keep America free, free to wave 

the Red, White and Blue.. 



How the ruin in Belgium, the massacres in 
Armenia, tears the heart — 



VERSES OF LOVE 39 

And poor Syria and Serbia, and Northern 

Italy, and France in part. 
So woefully hurt! It not only tears th'J 

heart, but makes the weakest long to 

fight- 
To fight the Hun. Poland was gone over 

seven times. Can such war be right? 
No! And think of the raping of women 

in each country done ! 
Five hundred thousand Polish girls rue the 

day they first saw the evil-minded 

Hun— 
The beastly, lustful, German Hun — 
That in form of soldi^s, while laughing, 

made them run; 
Then caught them and spoiled them, and 

made them wander 
Up and down their stricken land in bewil- 
dered horror. . . . They did 

ponder 
Over and over the past: What had they 

ever done such a fate 
To deserve? Such agony theirs! They 

feel spoiled for a true mate. 
God gave them hope to struggle on. Hope! 
The Huns had taken both honor and food. 

Is it beyond the scope 



40 VERSES OF LOVE 

Of your understanding how the despairing 

daughters 
Of Poland, as they wandered, on roots sub- 
sisted then? — and for drink bitter 

waters ? 
It is not. And you'll buy another Bond 

for Loved Liberty, 
One more than you thought you could buy, 
Lest our own America stricken be. 
Oh you can do it if you try ! 

It is not. You do understand, and for 
stricken Poland you feel,— 

As well as for ruined Belgium, decimated 
France, and all countries the heel 

Of the Beast has ground down. How you 
hate it! — 

You who always feel for oppressed human- 
ity. And you'll no longer do just 
your bit — 

You'll do your all, so it can't grind them 
down again 

At some future time, after friendly nations 
may have sent (almost) like rain 

Money to help relieve them, and their lands 
restore, 

To a beauty almost as blooming as 
before. 



VERSES OF LOVE 41 

And so it can't grind down your own dear 
nation ; 

Yes, you'll do your all, and help save your 
sisters and yourself from spoilation. 

And that your children and children's chil- 
dren may always be 

Americans, you'll buy them a Bond of 
Loved Liberty. 

You'll buy Bonds of Liberty; you'll buy 

them now, 
Each one bought makes the Kaiser wince 

and cry *Wow" ! 
Though he pretends he doesn't much care, 
He really gets a great, big scare 
Every time America a successful Liberty 

Loan doth float, 
Because it tells him all Americans sail in 

the same boat. 
And he knows that when a nation's people- 
like loyal brother to loyal brother- 
Stand loyally by their President, and by 

one another. 
That nation will win any just war her sol- 
diers fight- 
Fight for Liberty, for Peace, for Democ- 
racy, for the Right. 



42 VERSES OF lOVE 

(You will do your loyal bes') 
To make this Liberty Loan a grand 
success.) 

Some say the Hun is what the Kaiser has 

made him. 
We know that he, the Kaiser, has turned 

his soldiers — and all for a whim 
For world-power — into beasts to prowl like 

wolves- upon human prey, 
To do everything bad their mad master to 

obey ; 
And we blame him most, but can find for 

the Hun no excuse. 
There's no one has the right to order such 

abuse 
Of innocent children and virtuous women, 

of old men, feeble and gray, 
As the Kaiser has upheld the Hun in. No! 

to obey suits the Hun, I say. 
And they who pity none must no pity re- 
ceive. We must not even stop to 

pray for the soul of the Hun ; 
For we're in this war to win it — it must be 

won, 
For we're in this war to win it — and it will 

be won, 
If you buy Liberty Bonds ; each one bought 

is as good as a gun. 



VERSES OF LOVE 43 



A SOLDIER OF THE SOIL TURNED 
INTO A SOLDIER OF BLOOD 

I was a good soldier of the soil, 

I made myself used to constant toil, 

I wanted to help the war to win — 

Not to save my own tough skin. 

I planted a whole square mile of wheat, 

Because it would (in time) make bread for 

soldiers to eat. 
I worked and worked with all my might. 
And in due time was rewarded by the love- 
liest sight 
I ever had seen in all my life. 
Exultantly I cried : This will help in the 

strife 
In starving, fighting lands ! Oh, I was glad ! 
Then came the drought, and I was nearly 

mad 
Before it ended. . . . But end it did, 
And a great wheat dealer offered me a bid 
Which I accepted gladly — and thanked God 

again and again 
That He had answered my prayer for rain. 



44 VERSES OF LOVE 

I was there in my great wheat field 
When the rain came, and I thought not oi 

shield 
From its downpouring because I was warm 
In spirit. ... I stretched out my 

strong right arm 
With cupped hand and gathered in many a 

rain-drop 
And kissed them, and again prayed for the 

rain not to stop 
Till a-plenty had fallen — not forgetting 
To say : Dear God, not my will but Thine, 

for further wetting, 
Be done. . . . 

And I was a happy youth (almost a man— 
I'll soon be twenty-one), 
Before harvesting in many sections began. 
My wheat was later than that of many, 
Because for a time it had had of rain-fall 

hardly any — 
Till the deluge (as it were) came to atone 
For the time my wheat was left dry (and 

I to groan). 

But my day to harvest came at last, 
And I forgot the hard-waiting past. 
But just — just — just at harvest time 
There came a fire — 'twas someone's terrible 
crime. . . . 



VERSES OF LOVE 45 

I went out just before day was dawning, 
With my mower and men, one morning, 
And before we reached the edge of the great 
field 

Dawn came — and I saw my bounteous 

yield 
Of life-giving-wheat (so I had called it) in 

ashes laid: 
I cursed then, and would not be stay'd 
From cursing by my hired men; 
I (I am sorry to say it) I cursed God, and 

then 
Fell upon the ashes of my dead hopes. 
When I came to my senses I was tied with 

ropes. 
It seems I had no sooner fallen than I 

sprang up and upon my men crying 

out: 
They were Germans (one was) and should 

die. ... It was a fearful bout 
They afterward said, and said, too, I seemed 

the strength of seven men 
To have, and hurt them sorely while it 

lasted ; then 
I was weaker'n a cat, and a doctor put me 

to sleep. . . . 
When I awoke, I went out to my field of 

ashes to weep. 



46 VERSES OF LOVE 

I mourned for the loet beautiful wheat 
I had hoped would know the heat 
Of soldiers' across-the-sea camp ovens, 
when ground 

Into flour ; and now 'tis but a mound 

Of ashes. . . . And I thought of how I 

had stood waiting 
(And not alone — another shared my 

waiting), 
While gazing upon my wheat and praying 

rain would fall ; 
And of how the drought had hurt its beauty, 

and of all 
It meant to my dear ones and self as well 
As to soldiers : It meant, I must tell 
You, not only bread for soldiers, but it was 

keeping the fear 
From my dear ones of being driven forth 

from our home so dear. 
A mortgage on it our farm long had had; 
The wheat meant our salvation. . . . 

That I went mad 
For a while is it any wonder to you? — 
And it meant I could go to war, across the 

blue 
Wide sea, where my heart had long 
Been. ... It seemed I heard, as I 

mourned; the dong, 
Dong, dong of tolling bells; 



VERSES OF LOVE 47 

And it was true, and the yells 
Of my sweet, little sister and wee, baby 
brother 

Smote upon my ears : They (and I) had lost 
a mother. 



The cruel disappointment made my mother 

sick ; and then 
There came to take possession of our home 

the men 

To whom it had come to belong because of 

all I lost : 
Together the blows killed my (recently) 

widowed mother. And such a cost 
To me (and mine) the Kaiser and his 

bought men laugh at. 
He ordered my wheat to be burned ; I 

knew that 
When I fell upon my hired men, thinking 

them Germans. . . 
More, too, my wheat meant. I was expect- 
ing to marry — the banns 
Had been read. . . . That other who 

had shared my waiting for rain — my 

sweetheart — 
Was to be my ''soldier-bride. " Now how 

can I from her part! 



48 VERSES OF LOVE 

We've been comrades almost ever since we 
v^ere babies, hardly ever alone, 

(Now we're old enough to have a baby of 
our own). 



If only the wheat had been spared, 

I and the dear, dear one, who so gladly 

shared 
All my anxieties, could have married soon, 
And I could have gone to war this June, 
Leaving my wife and mother well-fixed till 

my time of returning 
To them — and to a son, perhaps, added to 

still my yearning 
For a son of my own to help carry on one 

day 
As a soldier of the soil : For that I did pray. 
If the wheat had been harvested and the 

mortgage paid, 
My sweetheart would now be my wife and 

around me would be laid 
Her dear arms in parting for me to go to 

war : That I could stand ; but here 
To live and not to possess her is hard ; she 

is so dear, 
And lovely and good. . . . But I have 

now not a thing 
To offer her (except love) who would to me 

bring 



VERSES OF LOVE 49 

So much. . . . I'll remember her best 

as she stood with me that noon, 
Before the rain came we'd prayed for to 

come soon ; 
There in my field we together watched the 

rippling breeze-made waves make 
Shadows play o'er the beautiful, golden 

wheat-lake. 
And the light breeze bent the heads of 

bearded grain 
And whispered with gadness to it of rain: 
A whisper my sweetheart and I heard, too. 
Rain was coming! Precious rain! At its 

first drops so few, 
My sweetheart stayed by my side ; but the 

wind blew 
Harder and harder, and thunder roared and 

crashed, 
So she kissed me, for rejoicing, and ran, as 

lightning flashed. 

To shelter. My sweetheart is afraid oi 

lightning, and of thunder. 
And that has made me, sometimes wonder, 
For I really enjoy it — or I did 
Before the Kaiser-bought-fiends, bid 
By him, destroyed all enjoyment in my- 

life. . / . 



50 VERSES OF LOVE 

But I'll show them! I'll enter the war- 
strife, 
Over There ! Yes, I'm going to war, to fight 
The d — n Huns, to help slay cruel Might! 
I'll put my orphaned brother and sister 
Out — in some good, childless woman's 

home — let their tears blister 
As they will my heart. For I've got to go; 
That anyone should see. I must show 
Those wicked Germans they'll yet pay 
For the crime that took every ray 
Of sunshine from my life ! Oh, how can 

men so slay? 
I ask of God — How can they? 



RETALIATION? NO! 

(Told to Eloise Cooper Fowler by a French 
Soldier.) 

They talk of revenge, of retaliation, 

On the wives and children of the German 

nation 
For the murder of our dear ones 
By the damned marauding Huns. 
But revenge cannot thus be taken, I know/ 



VERSES OF LOVE 51 

For I Stood with arm up-raised for the 

avenging blow, 
On a German wife and her children three, 
And my aim was well-taken, but ah, mel 
Something paralyzed my strong right arm 
And I could iiot do them harm. 
Insistent voices within me said : 
Not thus can you avenge your dead, 
But on their heads heap coals of fire 
And gone will be your revengeful desire. 

It proved to be so — 

And now you want to know 

If 'tis to be so 

With every would-be-avenging blow, 

How can we make the German nation pay 

For the murder of our loved the Huns did 

slay? 
In another manner it must surely be 
Than that our first mad thoughts would 

take, I plainly see. 
But how? — Well I wis 
That it must be like this : 
In battle, in sight of other men 'tis willed 
Each man who's had wife and children of 

his killed 
Shall seek the murderer of his own; 
The murderer, and he alone, 



52 VERSES OF LOVE 

Is the one to pay 

For the lives he took away. 

The defenceless wife and children of the 

Hun * 

Must not be killed nor made to run 
That we revenge may take 
For our dead, dear ones' sake. 
Those dear ones would not have it so; 
If possible, from the grave they would stop 

the blow; 
They would speak, if they could, to say: 
Let not the foes' women and children pay 
For the crime against us done, 
Lest you to Heaven not be won ; 
On them unsparing heap coals of fire, 
That they your ways may admire 
And teach others to see what you stand for; 
Thus you'll help break up the war 
By spreading propaganda truly great 
Throughout the Kaiser-deceived German 

state. 



VERSES OF LOVE 53 



TO AMERICANS 

God, who answers prayer, your Father-God, 
Will help you save the land your fore- 
fathers trod — 
Trod in godly fear of Him, in piety ; 
For He led them to your goodly country 
Where they could worship Him in freedom 
From persecution, while trying to set up 

His Kingdom 
On earth, and He will not let it be taken 

from you, 
Because it's your inheritance from them and 
in worshipping Him you are true 
To them. And He likes the way you pray, 

and the way you fast 
From meat and wheat; in prayer and fast 
you think of yourselves last. 

You pray for shell-torn France and for 
England, too, 

Dear kindred lands across the sea so blue, 

Also for ruined Belgium and for Alsace- 
Lorraine, 

They, too, lie far across the main; 



54 VERSES OF LOVE 

You pray, too, for bewildered Russia and 

for Serbia, 
For Montenegro, massacred Armenia and 

for Syria, 
Also for ravished, beaten-down Poland, 
And God knows you have stretched out a 

helping hand 
To each land you have prayed for; knows 

that all 
Have been more or less sorely hurt by the 

Kaiser-made-war-ball. 



And because God likes what you have done 

To help the lands cruelly hurt by the Hun, 

He will continue to keep you a favored race ; 

For He knows that in all you do you ask 
of His dispensing grace 

To bless your every good deed. 

He, who sees each land's every need. 

Sanctions this war-against-war you are 
waging 

Against the wolfish Hun, for that Hun has 
gone raging. 

Beastly mad, through neutral lands, trying 
them to destroy 

Utterly (and succeeding), has gone spoil- 
ing, slaughtering, pillaging in unholy 
joy. 



VERSES OF LOVE 55 

God knows all this was done by the 
Kaiser's rule, 

And He will send that wicked man to re- 
pentant school 

To con his lessons o'er and o'er, (and he 
will yet feel the Might 

Of God's Hand — he who thinks God could 
be on the side of aught but Right). 

And the Kaiser will learn in repentant 
school 

That God only does really rule. 

Yes, that man called his Satanic Majesty 
Will yet learn his lessons well.. For his 

audacity 
In claiming a righteous God is on his side 
In his war for land and power, he shall ride 
In company with Satan — to learn from him 

with pain 
What it means to lose his all in trying more 

to gain. 
Yes, the mad Kaiser will pray in vain 
For a leaven of God's Just Wrath. God 

will punish him; 
God will punish that wicked man with great 

vim. 
He (the Kaiser) is a madman, and shall be 

deprived 



^6 VERSES OF LOVE 

Of the power from a wiser man derived; 
Kaiser Wilhelm shall yet cover his face in 

shame, 
While he kneels and calls in vain on God's 

name. 
In a vision I saw God and heard Him say it, 
And that He, too, would do His Sacred Bit. 



Yes, Americans, every nation you've prayed 

for, for God's mercy, 
He has the name of in His Book of Destiny. 
But all will be mentioned here, lest you 

think 
God has not noted them ; lest you fear they 

will have to drink 
Forever of the bitter cup that's been forced 

upon them 
By the will of a madman whose rage they've 

tried to stem. 
Know that the name of brave Italy, and as 

brave Scotland, 
Is written in that Book bv God's Righteous 

Hand, 
As is that of every British possession that 

is loyal, brave and true, 
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, 

too: 
All have done their best — all they could, 



VERSES OF LOVE 57 

As have the brave colonies in Africa; H'e 

would 
Not forget the negro, either, who has proved 

brave, 
For He created both black and white, and 

the black doth crave 
His blessing with as great fervor as anj; 

race I know, 
And he will continue to the black His favor 

to show 
So long as the black continues meek, to 

show he's seen the light. 
So long as he continues to help fight for 

the Right. 

Japan stands ready to give more help, and 

God does now trust 
Her — because she would never align her- 
self with Germany : Rust 
Should eat her sword and gun before she 

should commit such a blunder. 
She was suspicious of America ; and is a 

wary nation, some say no wonder 
Considering . . . and that to be sus^ 

picious and wary is sometimes well; 
That if America had so been of Germany in 

the beginning who can tell 
How much better it might have been for 

her! Still, 



58 VERSES OF LOVE 

That America was slow to believe the worst 
of Germany will 

Not be held against her in history. . . . 
Japan and Russia should be friends 

It would be well for all concerned if each 
to each amends 

Would make ; if forgiveness by each to each 
would be given: 

They then could indeed help the world war- 
riven. 

Russia's name, is of course, in God's Book 
— poor, stressed nation, 

And Japan's is there, too; but if He sees 
signs of Japanese aggression, 

He will strike it off. . . . Albania, Pal- 
estine and Greece are named 

In His Book. And you may rest assured 
that each country famed 

For its stand against Germany will not be 
forgotten by Him: 

He will keep all true countries from being 
forever hurt by the Kaiser's whim. 

Portugal is named — she was quick to offer 

soldiers, braving 
Germany's wrath, Peru, too; both small 

but craving 



VERSES OF LOVE 59 

To do all they can; also Chile, Brazil and 
Nicaragua, Hayti, Costa Rica and 
Guatemala, 

And another country doing all she can- 
China. 

They have taken their stand on the side of 
Right. 

How easy it is for most countries to see the 

Light 
In this world-war! Germany has made it 

easy by forsaking 
Every established war-principle — by making 
Her name a by-word of reproach to the rest 

of the world. . . . 
The bloody crimes of her rulers smell to 

Heaven, 
Nothing those crimes can leaven! 
America! last mentioned, but not least, be- 
fore you hurled 
Forth your ultimatum and went to war, you 

did ask 
Of God if it would be right. ... He 

answered : Yes. For he knew it was 

but a mask 
Of friendship Germany (or the Kaiser) had 

ever offered you. . . . You are 

brave, 
Indeed, for you were not prepared. . . . 



60 VERSES OF LOVE 

The people of your possessions are 

brave, 
Also, and are so eager to help their govern- 
ment that they crave, 
Some of them, to give to it their money for 

w^ar purposes without return ; 
Why, they even fed their war-stamps to a 

fire! — glad to see them burn! 
Their names are placed high in God's 

Sacred Book. 
(In the vision I saw them : How I love that 

look !) 

Americans! God looks from High Heaven 
upon you, 

Who to your ideals have proved so true, 

Who have looked to him for grace, 

And asked Him if it were His will that your 
race 

Should wage Just war against Lustful war; 
and He says I love 

Your America, and all the lands you have 
prayed for, and I no dove 

Of untimely peace shall send. No ! Con- 
tinue true to be, 

To send your soldiers across the wide sea; 

Arm them well to go forth to fight, 

To help your allies to battle for the Right ; 



VERSE6 OF LOVE 61 

And He will help them, for His Son Jesus, 

Whom He gave to be crucified that 

all 
Who believe in Him may live eternally, has 

asked His Father to keep the vy^ar- 

ball 
From hitting you too sorely ; and His Father 

answered that He would, and that 
Kaiser Wilhelm shall learn that God reigns 

supreme on earth as in Heaven — 

that 
His Power is the One True Power that 

counts : 
And from the high horse Kaiser Wilhelm 

now mounts 
He shall fall, and never rise to make the 

people of the German nation 
Do his mad will; never again keep them 

under subjugation. 

Why has God's Son Jesus interceded for 

America, for you? 
Because you are the nation that has been 

kindest to the Jew. 
Jesus would return good for evil, for un- 

kindness grace. 
And though He once was persecuted by the 

Jewish race, 



62 VERSES OF LOVE 

He forgave them, for ''they knew not what 

they did." 
He knows that His Father, from Whom 

nothing is hid, 
Foresees the day when the Jewish race will 

on His Son believe. 
And when Jesus interceded for them that 

they might once more Jerusalem 

receive 
As their own, God listened to Him — that 

has been proved — 
And will grant all His requests. And the 

massed soldiers of England who 

moved 
To the Holy City to hold it for the Jew, 
Who have to their country and allies proved 

true. 
Shall have their names kept bright in God's 

Book of Eternal Life ; 
And He will continue to help them in their 

strife, 
So long as they battle for the Right and for 

each needy and brave little nation, 
To help all who call upon them in deep 

tribulation. 



Americans ! God loves you — brave men and 
brave women all — 



VERSES OF LOVE 63 

You who look to Him to bless your every 
good deed shall 

Continue to receive His Blessing. Youf 
voices cry loud to Him 

To help those stricken by the Kaiser's whim, 

For those (How He feels for them), kneel- 
ing by tombs; 

For the ravished women, whose wombs 

Would revolt in abortion if they could (in 
time) 

Before they would bear children of German- 
Lust (of crime). 

And He says unto you that blessed is that 
daughter 

Of France who rid her nation of her child 
of this Lust by slaughter. 

Other daughters hurt like her would surely 
have His sanction 

To do likewise, and their names have honor- 
able mention 

In His Book. God knows it will be a crime 
against a Just nation 

If its Hun-hurt daughters let their babes of 
German-lust-creation 

Live to grow up and make of that nation 
an illegitimate pro-German race 

Who would try to poison every good mind. 
They would surely live without grace, 



64 VERSES OF LOVE 

The illegitimate-lust-children of the evil- 
minded Hun, 

And they must be destroyed when born.— 
God, who rules the sun, 

Wills it (I heard in my vision) and His 
Will must be done. 



m 



A RAVISHED ONE: A POLISH 
COUSIN 

All is gone that made worth living my life! 

And it is the mad, mad strife 

Called war that took from me 

All that made my spirit free; 

All songs from my lips, all peace from my 

mind. 
For it was in vain that fast as the poor wild 

hind 
Running from the pursuing hound, 
I ran from the terrible, terrible wound 
I had rather I had died than receive. I ran 
And ran, and ran and ran and ran. . . . 
But he caught me, a German-soldier-devil, 
And ravished me : It was the first I knew of 

evil. 



VERSES OF LOVE 65 

Before the war my life was peacefully joy- 
ous ; mild, 
And now — full of torment : I am with child-^ 
With child ! I am wild, wild, wild, 
And my Lover will be wild. . . 
My lover, who, when I saw him off to war. 
Little knew that between us would come a 

bar 
Like this. How shall I endure it — how will he 
Endure it! How can I ever bear to have 

him see — 
See the me that is not the me he left me! 

When we parted, my lover and I, I smiled, 

though I was sad. 
But I thought war glorious then ; now I 

think it Hell. I shall go mad, 
Mad — Mad — Mad. . . . 
And that devil is glad — glad — glad. 
Oh, God ! won't you pity me and punish that 

wicked man-beast 
For his crime against me? The least 
You can do is to make him feel 
In some terrible way how he has made my 

weal 
All woe. ... I can never see my lover 

again ; 
I don't — yes, I do— want to, but it would 

cause too much pain. 



66 VERSES OF LOVE 

I could not bear to have him see me 
As I am now, could not bear that he 
Should look upon me with a killed-delight 

look 
On his face, his dear, dear face that I toolc 
In my hands when I looked last into his eyes 
And swore to be true — swore that steadfast 

as the skies 
I would be. God ! And he will think 
I wasn't true. He will scorn me, and the 

link 
That bound us will be broken forever. 
Oh! He is lost to me and I to him forever! 
It is too, too much — forever. 



Dear God! My lover has come! 

He has come! He has come! He has come! 

I would flee ! I would flee ! I would hide ! 

But I can't. . . . My lover has come to 
my side. 

Dear God ! He has not turned from me ; 

He loves me still, though he can see 

Our wonderful joy in love has been de- 
stroyed ; 

Lovers' bliss never more to be enjoyed, 

Wedded bliss and parenthood never to be. 

Oh, the home we had planned for, a child at 
each knee ! 



VERSES OF LOVE 67 

All is gone ; and it isn't because of crime of 

mine. 
(The evil deed of that Beast keeps me, my 

lover, from being thine.) 
Now that my lover has heard my awful 

story, 
He will go (I can see it in his eyes) and get 

for me all gory, 
A part of the man-beast! He'll give it 

to me! 
Dear God, (You who see my anguish), I 

pray Thee, 
If this be wrong, forgive me, but I want to 

see it burn, 
Burn slowly, and slowly to ashes turn 
(So it can never again inflict a worse-than- 

death-wound, 
Nor for another make of a thousand dear 

hopes a grave-mound) : 
I'll laugh again then and be glad. — 
(For a minute.) Oh! Oh! Oh! I am mad, 
I am mad — mad — mad. 



Dear God! My lover is dead. . . . 
They brought me the news when first I saw 

the head 
Of that crippled being born to me 
Because of the Beast's crime. You see 



68 VERSES OF lOVE 

What it is ! — Oh, how I want from sight it 
to cover ! 

Why couldn't it die instead of my lover? 

Why must it live to cumber the earth? 

Or why couldn't I have died before its birth? 

I would gladly have died, but I was too 
strong ; 

And to have taken my life would have been 
too wrong, 

Though I tried to take it when I was mad. 

After, I waited, outwardly calm, for some- 
thing to make me glad ; 

I will never have it : that Beast killed 

My lover. Oh, can it be it was willed 

From the beginning that all this should be? 

And that I shall have to live, and see 

Live this diseased brat that I hate, 

To have it for company instead of my mate? 

If so, I shall go mad again. 

Oh, how I hate it! and hate is worse than 
pain. 

Dear God, please look down and pity me 
now, 

Put Thy far-reaching Hand on my brow ; 

For Thou art my only lover now. 



VERSES OF LOVE 69 



TO KAISER WILHELM 

Of you, mad man, would-be ruler of the 
world, 

Of you, unworthy Kaiser, I earnestly ask — 

What are you thinking of behind the 
Satanic mask 

You wear? You who have in mad desire 
hurled 

The whole world into war? 

If the truth were known I believe you know 
now there's a bar 

To your winning. ... A living bar, 
mad man. 

That you and your soldiers cannot with- 
stand 

Long. The American army. Kaiser Wilhelm 
of Germany, 

Stands between you and the world-empire 
you crave ; 

An army fighting for more than ever was 
fought for before, as brave 

As the Spartans who fought at Ther- 
mopylae.. . 



70 VERSES OF lOVE 

Lustful Kaiser, when to your German god 
you pray, 

Do you ever think of the three hundred 
Spartans at bay 

At Thermopylae in 480 B. C, who for three 
days fought 

The mighty Persian army and such annihila- 
tion wrought 

Among it that twenty thousand (Persians) 
perished? 

(One was left of the Spartans.) Cherished 

Is the memory of those three hundred, 
Kaiser, 

Think ! Each Spartan killed sixty-six 
Persians! — think and grow wiser: 

For American soldiers being equal to the 
Spartans of old, 

Then each one can vanquish sixty-six 
Germans, however bold. 

However bold your German Huns in the 
fight, 

They cannot conquer for they are not fight- 
ing for the Right. 

On sea, too, the Spartans were conquerors 

brave : 
In the battle of Salamis, for instance. You 

crave 



VERSES OF LOVE 71 

To rule the deep, also, with your submarine 
But British navy men are as brave as 

Spartans, I ween. 
And you'll get chased out of the sea, 
Yes you will, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany! 
Think, mad Kaiser! 
Think, and grow wiser! . . . 
Would you and your sons like to be sent to 

some lone desert isle 
To do penance for your crimes the rest of 

your days? 
The world wants you there, so it can once 

more joyously smile 
To think that you would then be kept from 

keeping the world ablaze. 

Yield, now. Kaiser Wilhelm, when yielding 

is good. 
(For you will always be withstood.) 
Yield yourself and sons. Prisoners of War; 
Don't think your crimes will be a bar 
To your being well-treated. Never fear! 
You know how well German-prisoners are 

treated here. 
If you yield and order your soldiers to yield, 
'Twill be held to your credit; and though 

not on the battlefield 



72 VERSES OF LOVE 

You gained honor, you will gain in youi 

yielding 
Something that will slightly atone for the 

wielding 
Of the murderous battle guns 
By your German-Huns. 

If you don't yield, but keep your heart hard 
as stone, 

You will one day stand entirely alone : 

Even your allies will leave you, Kaiser, 

Oh, think and at once be wiser! 

Once you were a boy with a pleasant, in- 
nocent face ! 

Oh, Kaiser! Look now on that picture of 
you when you thought not of mace 

With which to try to club the world into 
slavery to you! — 

And compare it with the picture of you that 
shows all true 

Feeling (in you) for humanity is gone. 

Is it gone forever, Kaiser? If so, — Dong! 

Goes the bell to toll your doom ; 

Not so pleasant it will be to you as the war 
boom 

Of your guns. 
Quickening your Huns, 



VERSES OF LOVE 73 

I know, 

You know ; 

The world knows, 

And God knows. 

The world's God, Wilhelm o'er the sea, 

Wicked Kaiser of Germany! 

Not your German god, 

Who owns not the chastening rod 

With which the world's God chastens those 

he loves best; 
And which He will withdraw in His good 

time, to give them rest. 

Then, Kaiser, beware! for with its with- 
drawal 

Your knell will be rung! You can then 
bawl 

For World Power the rest of your life — 

In vain. And never again can you in war- 
strife 

Embroil the world ! 

You'll be hurled 

From your throne! — 

To stand all alone. 

And to a desert isle you'll go with your sons 

To do penance — for your crimes and the 
Hun's. 

You'll have plenty of time to think there! 

Again I, say (the World says), Kaiser, 
beware ! 



74 VERSES OF LOVE 



"RESISTER SUR PLACE" 

("Stick Here Until We Are Dead, Or Fight 
It Out Where You Are.") 

"Stick here until we are dead" 

Were the words passed along the line ! 

Not a man was afraid of German lead! 

Each one said: I take the motto for mine! 

And so the line was strengthened. 

And slowly the afternoon shadows length- 
ened. 

So slowly to the waiting men, eager for the 
fray, 

Eager with tense expectancy to hear the 
boastful bray 

Of many a big German shell. 

That to them would tell — 

Bombardment has finally begun 

By the German Hun. 

The clouds pink-edged beauty, caused by 

the setting sun, 
Observed by Frenchmen, American and 

Hun, 



VERSES OF LOVE , 75 

Vanished, and a pale moon shed a ghostly 
light 

Over the battlefield, where gathered to fight, 

Against a murderous might. 

Forces strengthened anew by thoughts oi 
Right. 

The moon fled by eleven, by the wrist 
watches. 

And all was silent and dark, except foi 
blotches 

Of blue-green, transitory lights on the vel- 
vet darkness of the sky. 

That told where many a soldier had fought 
to die — 

Was turning back to untimely dust 

Because of the German War Lord's Lust. 

All was silent ! Still, so very still ! 
Whispering men — soon to go through the 

mill 
Of battle again — spoke their before-battle- 

words, there on the Marne, 
Where many a pool, a veritable tarn, 
Of blood would be made to boil 
On the war-worn, shell-torn soil ! 
What cared the men when they felt it was 

for Right 
They would perhaps give their lives that 

night ! 



76 VERSES OF LOVE 

They did not envy the protected men at 
home; 

They wanted to be Over There in the 
gloam, 

For God and their country's right to their 
lives 

Had called them there — and they would 
fight hand to hand with knives 

If the need should arise (perhaps they 
wanted the chance) 

For Home, for Allied Countries, for Sweet- 
heart — France ! 



Each soldier who had a waiting one, seem- 
ingly far away. 

At home, had written his good-bye that day, 

And that night their thoughts had ceased 
to go homing, 

Their thoughts tensed on only the battle 
coming. 

For German signals, flashing from com- 
manding post to commanding post, 

Told them that at last the enemy host 

Was nearly ready to begin the fight of the 
defensive ; 

Because of their failure to make untenable 
the French positions, abandoning the 
offensive. 



VERSES OF LOVE 77 

But how the time still dragged ! 

It was twelve-five when the crimson flashes 

wagged 
In the star spangled sky, and the grunting 
Of the great German guns, in activity 

bunting 
Their shells into the air, was faintly borne 
To our men in their trenches on the Marne. 

At twelve-ten, big shells, high in air, yet 

near, 
Whining and passing to the rear. 
Told us that the bombardment our sector 

had reached, 
^f Jesus, crucified but living, could have 

then appeared and preached 
To the German Huns, they would have 

mowed him down ; 
They recognize only a German War God 

and Crown.) 
The German front reflected violently irreg- 
ular waves of light. 
From their artillery discharging in fiendish 

might ! 
Trembled the earth and rocked! 
The Huns thought their continuous shelling 

mocked 



78 VERSES OF LOVE 

The F. and A. forces that had their offensive 

defeated ! 
The F. and A. forces showed them later 

how such mockery should be treated I 

From Chateau-Thierry on the west 

To Main de Massiges on the east 

The sixty-mile front extended, 

And the guns' shells their way wended 

Over the front. Forty miles to Paris was 
carried the sound 

Of their whining, as they were striving to 
-wound 

And kill all within reach there on the 
Marne ; 

It was a current of favorable air on which 
was borne 

That sound ; for it was not heard at Head- 
quarters A-N-C, 

In a town not far back on the line of out 
soldier-sea, 

(Not on the line of the angry sea of des- 
perate Huns striving to be a bar 

To Liberty and Right), though it was per- 
haps the heaviest bombardment of the 
war, 

There on the Marne that night. 



VERSES OF LOVE 79 

During- the four hours of bombardment by 

German forces in armament 
Not a murderously sent shell struck our 

men. 
Though the front-line trenches were blown 

to pieces then, 
In dug-outs and in saps they were protected 

well, 
But their forced inactivity was to them 

more trying than tongue can tell ; 
For they ached to put the would-be murder- 
ers to rout, 
Who with shells were rending the ground 

them about. 
It is well that they did not have to cry alas 

or alack, 
That they were well fortified against the 

German attack; 
For after bombardment slackened, they did 

lose some men — 
Because of failure of some of their plans to 

place wire barriers before tho boche- 

men, 
Who impetuously came swarming, our front 

lines storming. 

"Boche in the trench !" were words excitedly 

shouted, 
And the fight was on — Germans to be 

routed ! 



80 VERSES OF LOVE 

In one hour this first German attack 

Was repulsed — the Boches driven back! — ■ 

Back to their own lines, except those who 

hid in our front, by desire, 
In deserted dug-outs ; some of them were to 

be killed later by German attack — 
In which they were again to be driven back, 
Though for two days and nights on our 

reserve positions they fired, — 
And on the country in the rear — to demolish 

them, they desired; 
But they did not demolish them, and we did 

not have to call them in. 
Many of them the battle watched (under 

quickly thrown-up cover) eager — the 

knowing — to see who'd win. 

Much harder it was to defend this second 

attack, 
To again drive the murderous Germans 

back ! 
Gun emplacements eleven were in action 

this time. 
When they came across to continue in crime. 
About twenty-five thousand men were by 

them sent over in two days, 
And twenty-two times they advanced, their 

fighting ways 



VERSES OF LOVE 81 

Were savage enough ; the roaring of shells 

in all directions overhead, 
Dropping, some on living, some on dead, 
Was deafening. Hot it was, too, as oven^ 

heat; our trenches were holes of Hell; 
As filled with smoke and gas as is filled with 

water a well. 
Perhaps the driving heat made our troops 

fight the fiercer. — Land! 
When the Germans in our main lines got, 

our soldiers (Americans) fought them 

hand to hand ! 

When the Germans found they could not 

break through the troops — American, 
And down march to dear old historic 

Chalons, 
It was the end of Tuesday, a day for them, 

a rue's day; 
Had come the hour they had set to arrive 

there, the city to be manning, 
Finding them where they had been when 

planning ! 
On both Monday and Tuesday, German 

birdmen, over the battlefield flying, 
Sent machine-gun bullets into our trenches 

— sometimes hitting their own men, 

living or dying — 



82 VERSES OF LOVE 

But they had to keep a lookout, wary, above 
and below them, 

For our own birdmen, swooping down, bat- 
tle to give them; 

To make more than one pay for his daring, 
to avenge the death, 

Of comrades in arms before those comrades 
of life fell bereft. 



Ceased on Tuesday the artillery bombard- 
ment and the fights, 

But on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and 
Friday nights 

Over our lines, and over Chalons, German 
aeroplanes flew. 

Dropping large bombs of destruction, not a 
few. . . . 

Interesting it is to know that while Ameri- 
can troops 

Fought back the savage German troops, 

The inhabitants of Chalons sought refuge 

In the city's wine caves huge. 

Which sheltered half a hundred thousand 
and a few more. 

Who their beloved city rightfully adore. 

The Germans coveted it — and were cocksure 
of having it for their own. 

To hold forever and its people to keep down! 



VERSES OF LOVE 83 

And the Germans might have taken this 

city, 
{Which would have indeed been a pity !) 
Had not American troops at the point of all 

points where 
They (Germans) had hoped to surge 

through there, 
Stood them off ; stood bombardment by gas 

and shell ; 
Each savage attack; and in answer never 

did soldiers fight so well! 
And so scientifically protected themselves 

from the gas that practically all 

thrown 
(By Germans) was wasted! American 

troops more than held their own 1 
Theirs was the victory ! Oh ! on land or in 

the air, 
Who can with they who saved Chalons 

compare? 
They who faltered not in carrying out the 

resolve they made when they said, 
^'Resister Sur Place, (Stick here until we 

are dead)." 



84 VERGES OF IX)VE 



SONG OF THE ALLIES TO AMERICA 

America, we looked to thee 

To help us in our war for Liberty, 

For Liberty and Right 

Against Wrong and Lustful Might. 

And you to your ideals of Right proved true 

And sent your Red, White and Blue 

To join our allied colors Over Here, 

And your dear soldiers to join our soldiers 

dear, 
To fight with them at Justice's Post, 
Just when they needed you most. 

(Refrain) 

Just when we needed you most of all, 

Just when o'er us there hung a pall. 

You answered our clear, our poignant call ; 

Just when we needed you most. 

Just when we needed you most of all. 

Just when Might's hand hardest would fall, 

You sent your soldiers to fight and fall ; 

Just when we needed you most. 

Just when most of all we needed you, 

You proved loyal and brave and true, 

You honored your Red, White and Blue ; 

Just when we needed you most. 



VERSES OF LOVE 86 

America, land of the free! Land of the free! 
In our future dealings with thee, 
May we ever move rightly and be just, 
May we ever prove worthy of your trust. 
America, we would give you your due meed 

of praise — 
You who did the world amaze 
With your large, trained army in so short a 

time — 
For joining in our fight against wholesale 

crime. 
For just when we needed you most 
Coming to aid our cause that seemed lost 



FAITH 

I sat by my window at dawn 

And watched the rising sun 
Make beautiful the morn, 

The far horizon. 

Through the night, vigil I had kept, 
For I had bade my mate good-bye 

The day before. . . . He sailed for 
France. I wept, 
I wept in his arms, too. Why? 



86 VERSES OF LOVE 

Because he had told me he'd think 

The woman hard-hearted who'd not cry 

When standing at the parting-brink 
She to her mate said good-bye. 

So I gave him the pleasure 

Of kissing my tears away, 
Of seeing, and feeling, the full measure 

Of my love that day. 

I 

He did not doubt my will to be brave, 
To smile if smiles he'd wanted that day; 

He wished to see I'd feel bereft and crave 
His presence my fears to allay. 

The night's vigil taught me 

What I had felt I knew before, 
That God would watch o'er the sea 

While my mate journeyed to another 
shore. 

( 

So more fully I gave my mate into His care, 
And knew if he were drowned at sea 

Or killed in battle 'twould not be for lack 
of prayer, 
But His will for my mate and me. 



VERSES OF LOVE 87 

I heard the first morning song bird 

Calling to his mate — 
She, understanding his every word, 

Came to him, and close by his side sate. 

Seeing the love-birds together. 

Made me w^ant my mate ; 
Who nov^r, in fair or stormy weather, 

Is fighting in France, while, protected, 
here I wait. 



I heard my mate calling me 

To come to him in dreams and strengthen 
His spirit, and so I will to be 

There by his side, always as the days 
lengthen, 

I know I strengthen my mate. 

I hold him in my arms. 
He knows I'll always for him wait. 

And feels — though far from me — my love 
warms. 

I'll for him wait, yes, for him wait. 

Even till the judgment day; 
When we'll learn who was master of his fate 

When he was "called" away. 



S8 VERSES OF LOVE 

When he was called away to France, 
To fight for Liberty and Right, 

And glad, too, to have the chance 
To help rout the beasts of Might. 

The beasts of Might who prey 

On innocence and happiness in the Near 
East, 
Who, it is true, one master obey 

But not the True One; God; but the 
Beast. 

I'm glad I sent my mate against them: 

He is helping their Might 
And wickedness to stem ; 

He is doing his all in this great fight. 

And I willed he should. 

He did not have to go ; 
But he wanted to, and I, too, wanted to do 
good, 
So sent him Over There my goodness to 
show. 

Oh, my mate, my beautiful mate, 
You may not, in the flesh, come 
To me again, but you'll wait 
In Heaven for me, till I, too, go Home! 



VERSES OF LOVE 



TO FIDO, A RED CROSS DOG. 

They told me a learned hand 

Had kept me from crossing the Border 

Land; 
So I was thinking of Paradise, 
But I was looking in Fido's eyes. 

Someone called him a cur, 
My eyes with tears began to blur ; 
The word cut my heart like a knife, 
A cur ! He who really saved my life ! 

Fido whimpered, and painfully crawled 

closer to my bed's side, 
And I put forth a weak, trembling hand, in 

pride. 
And patted him on his noble head. 
They have denied you a soul, dog dear, I 

said. 

You had deeper eyes of love for seeing, 
I said, and you've been braver than the 

human being 
Who called you a cur and denied you a soul, 
You, who to save me gave all your strength 

in toll. 



90 VERSES OF LOVE 

Let those who call you a cur beware ! 
You, who brought me here to a doctor's 

care! 
Oh, the brave devoted soul of you, I said, 
And knew an old, old belief of mine had fled. 

Fido, being too severely wounded, by a 
Boche, died, and was put in his grave, 

And now there is nothing in the world, aside 
from winning the war, I so crave 

As to have all others know 

What in these verses I've tried to show. 



y^ 



A NEGRO SPEAKS 

Oh, Liberty, fair Liberty, 

Thy dear, sweet voice didst call to me ! 

It called to me from far away 

For aid in the great fight today. 

And though I (once) came from Africa's 

shore, 
I answered the call of the goddess I adore, 
For Liberty was bought for me — 
Was bought for me with blood, was Liberty. 
And glad am I at last to show 
How grateful I am for the great blow 
That broke my chains of slavery 
And gave me that dearer than life — Liberty. 



VERSES OF LOVE 91 

I've got **my" Boche, and more beside, 
But I'm not puffed up with pride — 
Though I wear the Croix de Guerre. 
For what's killing a few of the animal-men 

called the Hun 
And making, in terror, run 
A score? I would it were more, 
To help square my debt to the noble dead, 
Who for me bled 

In America's civil war — for my liberty : 
For Liberty, fair Liberty, 
And for the Right ; 
And for these I, too, do fight. 



TO THE BACHELOR-WOMAN 
AFRAID TO MARRY 

Running-from-life-woman, you know (oi 

what you were made. 
And you are of the best life can give afraid! 
Oh! take your head from out the (figura- 
tive) sand 
Where you hide your (cowardly) fear, and 
Open wide your clear, bright eyes 
That need more life-knowledge to make 
them really wise; 



92 VERSES OF LOVE 

Take your fingers from your want-to-be- 
deaf ears 
And let them hear what the wise woman 

hears, 
Take your courage in both hands — so tender 
To caress — and to your Maker render 
Thanks for the strong body He to you has 

given 
To help Him people the world war riven. 

Once you have done this you will go 
On your way rejoicing; you will show, 
Dear (once) running-from-life-woman, that 

you have become brave — 
You will marry and give to your nation the 

sons it doth crave ; 
Then a new name you will forever have : 
Running-to-meet-life-woman your name 

will be, 
And it will be a name honored by three 
Wise men — greatest scold, greatest critic, 

greatest author, 
And by all who have mocked you before. 
And you will be glad — and more glad still-— 
That you have performed your Maker's Will. 



VEKSES OF LOVE 93 



LIFE 

In the Land of the LilHes two lovers are 
standing, 

By those flowers fair their future are plan- 
ning; 

And joy fills the hours that seem to be flying, 

While their future looks as fair as the flow- 
ers that one with another seem to be 
vying. 

From another land to ''Balmy Bermuda" 
they had come sailing, 

From its cold storms that harmed him while 
they went wailing, 

That there his health he would regain they 
sailed hoping; 

They had not hoped in vain — time is 
proving. 

Soon he will be well and good-bye to the 
Lillies they will be saying, 

And for a safe life-voyage together will be 
praying. 

Their mothers sailed with them, happy in 
their children's joy — never sighing; 

One Loves her girl, the other her boy — with 
Love undying; 



94 VERSES OF LOVE 

And the two Loves into one are merging, 

While they feel their life-work has been well 
done, as billows are surging. 

They cannot see the black cloud over them 
all lowering — 

Ready to burst and with might let fall its 
gathering. 

Of their widowed homes and country they 
are thinking; 

Little child-forms in those homes they see- 
content fills the cup they are drinking, 

While for their children patiently they are 
waiting 

On board the yacht that, too, is but waiting 

Not far away now is the black cloud that 

for the Lovers will have no silver 

lining, 
Overcast with war's baleful power is the 

future for which they are pining. 
But on board the yacht they are made one, 

"never knowing" ; 
And after the knot's tying, all ceremony 

done, blushes showing. 
Their mothers leave them, their happiness 

to be completing, 
And plan to return home, old scenes to be 

greeting ; 



VERSES OF LOVE 95 

After the bride and groom sail away — to 
touch no shore for sight-seeing — 

Where neither mails nor rumors of war can 
go fleeing. 

One another is the only sight for which they 
are caring — 

Love the best food upon which they are 
faring. 



War outstretches its greedy hand, upon 
their returning, 

And gathers him in to fight for his land— for 

it he is yearning. 
Wounded before long he is and word is sent 

by cable homing 
That ere Heaven becomes his tent there's 

time for his bride's coming. 
See her by the death-bed kneeling! 
Oh, the heart-break she is feeling! 
The sword of death about to fall she is 

seeing, 
And o'er her vision there comes a pall — clear 

mind is fleeing. 
As from out the depths of her agony so great 

her cry goes ringing: 
She cries to her dearest for her to wait — he 

hears her singing. 



96 VERSES OF LOVE 

She (the bride) Sings : — 

Come with me, my love, where the lillies are 

blooming ; 
Come with me, my dove, where they the aif 

are perfuming. 
Come with me, my love, whepe we did our 

day dreaming; 
Come with me, my dove, where love was 

more than seeming. 
Come with me, my love, oh, rouse from your 

sleeping, 
Come with me, my dove, there still my 

weeping ; 
There where the lillies are blooming. 

One said to her : "&he scenes of life are ever 

changing, 
From hope to joy, from happiness to sorrow 

ever ranging; 
And not for one alone, but for all in the 

world, 
So be brave and conquer self. But she 

hurled 
Her form upon the dear, dead breast, 
Seeking there for peace and rest. 
Unheeding the preacher's voice so calm, 
Aching for heart's ease, for balm. 



VERSES OF LOVE 97 

Again she sings: — 

Oh, I'll go with you, my love, where fairer 

flowers are blooming; 
I'll go with you, my dove, where they 

Heaven are perfuming. 
I'll go with you, my love, there to eternal 

dreaming ; 
I'll go with you, my dove, there love will be 

more than seeming. 
I'll go with you my love, where you ga 

sleeping; 
I'll go with you, my dove, there you will still 

my weeping; 
There where fairest flowers are blooming. 

Does she die? No! She is too grandly 

strong : 
This is well ; for to die would be mournfully 

wrong. 
And what is this she thrillingly sees. 
As breaths of lesser agony she breathes ! 
A vision of living for the cause, for right and 

home, 
To live for her (and her country's needed) 

son to come ! 
And with his birth (to his country) she 

gives him up, 
Saying: now I prefer to drink that cup. 



98 VERSES OF LOVE 

She sings:— 
I'll live for you, my son so dear, don't be 

fearing ! 
I'll live till my life-work is done, precious 

dear, don't be fearing! 
I'l live to help in the strong cause of justice 

and love, that needs our fighting 
Against Injustice and Hatred, all wrong, 

my little dove; and wrong we must 

be righting! 
I'll live to breathe in your ears two a fond, 

fond tale — Oh, how I will love the 

telling. 
Of the bravery of your hero-dad, who died 

before hearing your wail, who loved 

his country with heart swelling 
To fight for her; and for you and me, dear 

son, — oh, how his soul I'm loving!^ 
Who died for her and you and me, dear one, 

— oh, how three I'm loving! — 
Your country and mine, your hero-dad 

(above) and you dear, and I'm no 

longer free to be grieving; 
For there's work for me to do, dear, for the 

three in me believing.. . . 
And when my life-work is over, in Heaven 

on his breast I'll be sleeping; 
And there, oh, there! with my lover, I'll find 

rest — and there there'll be no weep- 
ing! 



VERSES OF LOVE 99 



TO A FLOWER 

For jewels men steal, fight and die — 
For flashing jewels — and women cry, 
And set the men on to further quest, 
And themselves sometimes crime commit- 

lest 
They lose that within their grasp. 

But give me a flower, a pretty flower, 
A lovely, a beautiful flower; 
A flower bright to fondle and hold, 
A flower of light — of dear old 
Mother Earth a soul — a flower sweet 
To tend and nourish and greet. 

Then not jewels nor gold 

Nor wealth untold, 

For which men steal, fight and die. 

Which make women cruel and lie. 

Can make me give a longing gasp. 



100 VERSES OF LOVE 



WE PRAY 

For our soldiers fighting Over There, 
Every Christian here sends to our God a 

daily prayer; 
That He will help them ever — 
Guide their sight and hand aright, and 

never 
Forget them, alive or dead. 

For our allied soldiers we make the same 

prayer, 
They alike we commend to God's loving 

care. 
And for every loyal server of our country, 

dear. 
And theirs, we also pray, every day; and 

fear 
Is conquered by faith in its stead. 



VERSES OF LOVE 101 



WHY? 

There are babies who have died 

Who might have lived for their country's 

need. 
By work their mother's hands were tied 
But money paid — oh, yes, indeed ! — 
To other women to care for these little ones 
Who were careless and let the babies die. 
Neglect caused their deaths! How that 

fact stuns! ... 
Why allow this neglect to go on? Why? 

I ask my question of those whose influence 

counts. 
I ask it with tears and a breaking heart, 
While high indignation mounts. 
Oh, you who can, do your part ! 
And save other babies, little babies, deaf 

and sweet ; 
Dear to their mothers even if these mothers 

are unmarried. 
(It must not matter to you that the fathers 

never tarried.) 



102 VERSES OF LOVE 

These mothers love their babies dearly; 
they arise and greet 

Each new-born day the easier because of a 
little one ; 

And if it dies, sometimes the mother's in- 
nate goodness dies 

And she cannot then be helped nor won— 

Back . . . however hard to help her one 
tries. 

Dear to their mothers have I said 

These babies were — and what of their coun- 
try shall I say? 

Their country loved these dead ; 

Perhaps it may greatly need them one day. 

Oh, you who have influence, I know 

You love your country ! Then help babies 
to live ! 

Help unmarried mothers, too; strive them 
to show 

They have a place here, a right to give ! 



VERSES OF LOVE 103 



FIVE WORDS 

There are five words that are wonderful 

words indeed, 
Five wonderful words of which we all have 

need; 
They higher than the tallest building tower, 
They are Truth, Beauty, Virtue, Reason, 

Power ; 
Words that tell the greatest story, 
Words that picture greatest glory. 
Are these five words dear, sublime, — 
Words that shall outlast all time. 

Men of a long by-gone yesterday 
Who walked carefully along life's way, 
Steadfast men who had not the higher 

education 
That their descendant-men have today in 

our nation, 
Understood these words better than their 

descendants do today. . . . 
Should we not study to understand them 

fully as we walk life's way? 



104 VERSES OF I.OVE 

Walk? No! We don't walk! Why, we 

fairly run! 
Or we would (before our lives are half done) 
Understand perfectly, while yet 'neath 

Heaven's bower, 
The sublime words — ^Truth, Beauty, Virtue, 

Reason, Power. 



m 



A MOTHER'S APPEAL 

My daughter has left me — to go forth alone 
Out in the world that's as cold as a stone, 
To innocence combined with ignorance such 

as hers ; 
She will find, I fear, many stinging burrs 
While wresting the meat from her chestnut 

of hope. 
I fear she may "hang herself with her own 

rope" ; 
Any daughter may who thinks the world a 

better place 
Than her mother's home, where is hei 

mother's face 
Looking, ever looking for her return home. 



VERSES OF LOVE 105 

I mean not the daughter who out in the 

world has her career, 
Though she to her mother is equally dear. 
I mean the daughter whose rightful place 
Is with her mother and her mother's race, 
Whose mother needs her, but who most 

needs her mother. 
Needs her as she needs no earthly other, 
Whose mother would have given het 

consent 
To a right-going, but not to the going to 

give vent 
To anger and to spite. 
Oh ! may such a daughter see aright 
Soon after going is my prayer! 
And always will be till I die and go There 

(To My Daughter) 

Oh, woe the day I at dawn awoke 
To find you gone ! If the words I spoke 
In chiding you the night before — in anger, 

I know, — 
Drove you away, won't you return and to 

you let me show 
How repentant I am, — How I love you, 

who are of me a part ; 
Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, heart 

of my heart! 



106 VERSES OF LOVE 

Of a perfect union a flower, 

That I bore in a travailing hour, — 

"Little knowing" a more agonizing time 

could come, 
I know (it could) now you are gone. . . . 

Oh, return! 
Return to the mother for whom your heart 

does burn; 
Return to my yearning breast. 
Oh, return, precious one, and rest! 
Return ere it be too late ! 
For you, dear, I can wait 
But a short while; for the heroic smile 
I wear that tells my world, in pride. 
That I let you go from my yearning side 
Will not last — cannot, my dear. 
As it hides a broken heart that within a 

year 
May beat its last. Oh, daughter, — come 

home! 



m 



A DAUGHTER'S WAIL 

One day in June you died, mother, 

God, whom you loved, set your spirit free,* 

One day in June you died, mother, 
And now I am praying God will take me. 



VERSES OF LOVE 107 

You left me not alone, my mother, 
To struggle with life and its pain ; 

You left me not alone, my mother, 

Others strive to help me, but almost in 
vain. 

Other help than a loving mother's, 

Is not the help that's so dear; 
Other help than a loving mother's, 

One accepts; but oh, you were peer! 

Fve the love of sisters and of a brother, 

It helps, but cannot make up for thine; 

Fve the love of a husband and son, deaf 

mother, 

It helps; but thou art gone, oh mother 

mine. 

Oh, why did you leave me, mother, 

I need you so; you could soothe my pain! 

Oh, why did you leave me, mother, 

I want to feel your dear hand once again ! 

Mother I the sympathy of others — 
One sometimes feels its want, dear; 

Mother ! the sympathy of others 
Cannot stay the falling tear. 



108 VERSES OF LOVE 

The tears I have shed for you, mother, 
Would make salt a fresh lake ; 

The tears I have shed for you, mother, 
Should attract God's pity for your dear 
sake. 

Oh, may He soon be merciful, 

And call me Home, — He the Greet Seer— 
Oh, may He soon be merciful, 

He can see I'll not be needed here. 

****** 

On the day in June you died, mother, 
God knew the light of the world went 
out for me; 
On the day in June you died, mother, 
He did almost let your poor child follow 
thee. 

And He would have quite but He knew 
That your child would be needed here ; 

And He would have quite but He knew— 
Oh, of all seers. He is indeed the Greatest 
Seer! 

So I must be content, dear mother. 
And wait God's time to fulfill; 

So I must be content, dear mother, 
And submit my rebellious heart to His 
will. 



VERSES OF LOVE 10ft 

For He knows what is best, dear mother, 
And in His own good time will take me 
Home, to rest; 
For He knows what is best, dear mother, 
And when Fm good enough will let me 
be folded again on your breast. 



01 



RESCUED 

I struggled long in the waves of an unhappy 

sea. 
They buffeted me about, and all but 

drowned me. . . . 
Called to me Voices, from the Unknown, 
Saying : come and hold as your own 
Your acre in the land of happiness ; for thee 

'twas made, 
So be not afraid, be not afraid. 
But I struggled on, ever falling, 
Hearing the voices, ever calling: 
The quicksands at last before me — 'neath 

my feet . . . 
Oh, I answered the voices, 'twould be so 

sweet 



110 VERSES OF LOVE 

To reach your land of happiness, to sing 

with the lark; 
Here it is so cold, so drear, so dark ! 
But how can I reach the firm, dry ground? 
Much time passed and even the cycle of 

years went round. . 
No clear answer to my question came ; 
One foot was in the quicksands, — I was 

ready to blame 
Anyone but myself — , I could not release it, 

alone. 
Suddenly a great light shone! 
A poignantly sweet voice said : I will guidi 

you to your own. 

I looked up. Who did I see, you ask.. 

I will at once the mystery unmask : 

I saw Jesus crucified ! 

I felt Him take me by the hand 

And lead me to the happy land. 

With His help, you see, my foot easily left 

the quicksands. 
And if I obey His clear commands, 
It will never get caught again; 
ril strive to obey Him, for I dearly love 

Him who all that pain 
SuflFered for me on His Cross. 



VERSES OF LOVE 111 

Oh, how I love Him who can away roll 
All unhappy clouds from the vision of the 

soul! 
And lead everyone who takes Him for a 

guide 
To Paradise, by His dear side. 
Oh, 'tis so sweet to kneel at Jesus' feet ! 
I knelt and thanked God for sending to me, 

in love, 
His beloved and only Son, who will always 

reign above 
With His Father, in Heaven, 
My sins to leaven. 

m 

THE BIRTH OF A SOUL 

As the sun was rising red in the east 

And most all the world was still in 
slumber, 

A robin sat on an ice-bound fence 
And sang a song to his Maker. 

He sang a song of thanks for the spring so 
near. 

And one for the spring that had gone ; 
For all the joys in memory dear, 

And those of the days to come. 



112 VERSES OF LOVE 

He flew away — and the ice-bound fence 
Knew him (nor was itself known) no 
more that spring — 

Then in the fast approaching day 
I, too, to my Maker did sing. 

I sang a psalm of thanks for the gift of a 
soul, new-born, 
I thanked Him for keeping me through 
the sick years so long, 
For the joys of the life I once had known 
and hoped again to know, 
For a heart really awake to feel the joy in 
a robin's song. 



m 



I SHALL BE YOUNG AGAIN 

To my heart comes a pain. 
When I hear once again, 
The old songs ringing, 
By sweet voices singing. 
That I sang when I was young. 



VERSES OF LOVE lia 

When I was young and gay, 
With old friends at play, 
No thought of sorrow — 
Of the sad, sad tomorrow — 
Came to mar my joy. 

Oh, I knew not, in the old days, 

There was a future all amaze 

With trouble and care for me, my boy; 

No, in the old days there was joy without 

alloy : 
Then I knew not trouble walked unhung. 

There was no thought of sadness, 
To mar my gladness, 
When I was young and free — 
As any blossom on any tree — 
When I knew not my knell had rung. 

But the (mental) pain does not stay; 

Comes Will to conquer, and away 

Goes all sadness and sorrow : 

I wait for the glad tomorrow 

When I shall again (in Heaven) be young. 

In Heaven my spirit will again be free — 
As any blossom on any tree ; 
I shall walk (who walk not here) 
On streets of gold, and no wolf — ^were 
Of pain shall walk by my side. 



114 VERSES OF LOVE 

For in Heaven there is no wolf of pain, 
To gnaw; there is no struggle, no strain; 
There is no sorrow: 
There is always a glad tomorrow, 
In Heaven gladness will indeed with me 
abide. 

In Heaven gladness will with me abide, 

In the great, eternal eventide; 

There Jesus will meet me. 

And with kindness will greet me. 

And all my earth-pain will leaven. 

For He died to save me. 

Yes, He died to save me; 

And upon the Cross purged my sin. 

That I might sometime Heaven win: 

(Oh what joy to live with Him in Heaven!) 

And in Heaven loved ones gone before 
Will welcome me at the Great Door ; 
Will welcome me with shouts of joy: 
With hymns that thrill indeed, my boy. 
Angels will sing me to sleep. 

They will let me sleep on my mother's 

breast. 
They will let me rest — rest — rest, 
And strength to my limbs restore: 
Mother and I shall never be parted more, 
And I never again shall weep. 



VERSES OF LOVE 115 



CHRIST SAVED MY SOUL 

I sold my soul for gold, 
Quite sometime ago; 

A bargain, I thought the selling then- 
Now the things I bought are old, 
And worn ; and, oh, woe ! 

I wish for my soul back again. 

But it can never come back to me, 
I fear, though I do not know; 

They tell me there is one 
Who atoned for all sin on a tree, 
The tree of crucifixion, long ago; 

A dearly beloved Son. 

But is it true? Can I believe? 
Great joy it would be 
To believe that I could be made whole! 
Can it be for me a Christ doth grieve? — 
For me bore a cross upon a tree, 
To save my soul ? 

i 
Perhaps, I cannot really tell, 
I didn't know, some time ago, I had a soul ; 



116 VERSES OF LOVE 

It must have been asleep. 
Perhaps I know it now because sorrow has 

come to dwell 
With me, and remorse of my heart has taken 
toll; 
And my eyes know how to weep. 

If I didn't know I had a soul some time ago, 
Perhaps, oh, perhaps ! I didn't really sell 

It, then, and can be made whole! 
Perhaps — no ! there is a Christ ! Oh joy ! I 

know! 
In my heart the glad tidings rings, like a 
bell: 
He saved my soul ! 

Christ, the dearly beloved, saved my soul; 
It was for a sinner like me 

He bled and died. 
He, the dear Saviour, can make me whole, 
Because on the tree 

He was crucified. 



PART TWO 

of 

LOVE, FAITH AND APPRECIATION 



Dedicated to my son whose belief and 

interest in my work has helped me 

wonderfully though he is but eleven 



VERSES OF LOVE 121 



BOYISH PATRIOTISM 

My Red, White and Blue ! How I love you! 

Naught shall ever be held above you ! 

I'm waiting till Fm old enough to fight fof 

you, 
Waiting till Fm old enough to even die for 

you! 
Long may you wave o'er my land so true, 
My dearly beloved Red, White and Blue ! 

I do know why I love you ! 

Dear flag of Red, White and Blue ! 

It's because my great forefathers left you 

to me 
To wave o'er the land they, with their blood 

made so free. 
And because they so bravely fought and 

died for you in the great and glorious 

past, 
I'll fight, perhaps die, for you if till I'm big 

enough the present war should last. 



122 VERSES OF LOVE 



TO MY SON AND OTHER WOMEN'S 
SONS 

My son, I hear the sea, the sea ! 
Calling; calling to you, to me! 
It says come to my shore 
And rest ; rest as in days of yore. 

It says let your ideas soar high as my waves, 
And if they go down as one my sea-side 

laves. 
Up with them again. Don't be discouraged. 

You'll meet ups and downs in life ; 
But be courageous, be prepared, and ever 

look up in life's strife. 

It says bring the autobiographies of self- 
made men 

And study them by my side — and then 

Read the broken lives about you and see 
wherein their owner's failed; 

But most read your Bible — let your faith to 
that be nailed. 

It says in the lives of the greatest men self- 
made 

God was the Captain, Jesus the Pilot; so 
they were of life not afraid; 



VERSES OF LOVE 123 

They learned of Captain and Pilot that by 

service to others, 
And use of the golden rule, they could make 

all men their brothers. 

And you want all men your brothers to be, 

my son ; sing 
Of the brotherhood of man ! Let the song 

ring 
In your heart and mind forever ! For 'tis a 

great thing, my son, 
To feel you're to all men a brother, and that 

one day you'll hear God say well 

done! 

And you will hear Him say well done 
If you keep heart and mind pure, my son, 
If you give true service to others 
And treat all men as loved brothers. 

Jesus said: "Let him who would be greatest 
among you also serve." (Never forget this, 
my son.) 



124 VERSES OF LOVE 



TO A BROOKLET 

Dear, sparkling brooklet of my childhood, 
Daughter of the deep, black brook 
In the heart of the silent wood, 
Where I from school played truant one well- 
remembered day. 
Oh, brooket, I want a long, long look 
At you before I go away! 

Well I remember the feel between my bare 
toes of your water gurgling, 

And the feel of your smooth stones — of some 
a bridge I made. 

Truly I was stealing— burg'ling ! 

How often have I thought of the tree-tops 
above you meeting. 

How often of their welcome shade! 

Oh, to again give you greeting! 

I used to run fast to you, brooklet, I was 

for you so eager! 
But did I love you then in the way 
I love you now when my life is of even 

simple pleasures so meager? 



VERSES OF LOVE 12ft 

Is it not the care and sorrow in the years oi 
separation from you, brooklet so dear, 

That makes me know I really love you 
today ? — 

That makes me want you here? 

Yes, I would you were here, brooklet, at 

my door! 
I want to see you so — on you my fill to look. 
I want to feel your clear, loved water once 

more; 
I want to handle your clean, clean stones, 

your babbling I want to hear, 
I want to do as I used to do — throw one of 

your stones in that deep, black brook 
Of which I always had a hidden fear. 

One drowned in that brook — a boy. He 
was skating 

On the thin ice o'er the springy part. . . . 

And after that I felt it was for me, too, 
waiting. . . . 

Now that I'm old I think of your mother- 
brook as something sinister, 

And it really hurts my heart 

That it's related to you, brooklet so dear. 



126 VERSES OF LOVE 

I can't love that brook (your mother). I 

know that when I used on it to try to 

skate 
In a way I was as eager to as were the other 

children, 
But I had on me, always, a fearing-fit and 

would wait 
To let them go first o'er the springy part; 

then was bound with them to do an^ 

dare. . . . 
I've wondered since if it would have been 

better had I drowned then — 
When I knew not sorrow nor care. 

I wouldn't mention that wonder if I didn't 

know well, 
That many a one has had a related wonder ; 
And I say to each one No ! and I want this 

''No!" to ring clear as a bell, 
It would not have been better ; for we each 

have a mission here. 
If you who read haven't yet found yours, 

you will — even after many a blunder. 
I feel I have found mine, brooklet so dear. 

I think my mission is to send out heart- 
songs to those who wait to receive 
them; knowing 



VERSES OF LOVE 127 

That even if they're sad songs they will 
help (that they may not Tve no fear), 

In their lives the sad songs make the great- 
est showing. 

And those waiting ones, brooklet, may know 
more of woe than of weal. 

Though you don't know it ; you don't know 
anything — but you are so dear, 

And, oh, how you make me feel! 



A MIGHTY ARMY (1918) 

Most loyal to their Uncle Sam 

(And for his enemies not caring a flim- 
flam!), 

There are on this our Children's Day 

About eighteen million children strong, 

Who have been taught that as they work 
and as they play 

They must uphold truth and righteousness 
against wrong; 

They must keep themselves pure — not let 
sin engross, 

And live on a wheatless, meatless ration, 

As they go marching under the flag of the 
cross 

Of their Sunday School and of their nation. 



128 VERSES OF LOVE 



TO CHILDREN 

That wrath can be turned away 

By a soft answer has been proved, 

So when your parents are angry with you, 

children, 
If you speak gently to them, they will be 

moved 
To treat you more kindly, day by day, 
Than if you had given a rough, angry 

answer when 
They asked of you an angry question 
About something you had left undone and 

forgot to mention. 

To keep your temper, children, 

I know it is hard, but the end will prove, 

dears, 
So much better for you than if you had 

lost it; 
For if you answer an angry question 

angrily, then 
Your angry parents will answer more 

angrily still, dears, 
And the matter may end in a whipping fof 

you and a bit 



VERSES OF LOVE 129 

Of the fault will be yours. I know every 

child fears 
A whipping (and rightly), so I have given 

one way to avoid it. 



GEORGE MAKES BELIEVE 

I make believe I'm a soldier, 

Fighting the Hun! 
Wish a Hun could feel one of my blows, 

He wouldn't think it fun. 

I make believe I'm an aviator, 

Soaring above Berlin ! 
Wish the Kaiser could feel my bomb — 

He'd soon answer for his sin. 

I make believe I'm a submarine commander^ 
Out the sea-pirate subs to chase! 

I capture one or two? Well I guess! 
It's a great race ! 

I make believe I'm a marine — 

I go Over the Top ! 
I make the Boches flee 

And fall, too, — Kerflop! 



130 VERSES OF LOVE 

I make believe I'm rich — 

I feed all the poor in France ! 

I g-ive the poor kids such a good time 
They all want to dance! 

I believe the last make believe 

Is the best one of all — don't you? 

I believe we're going to win the war! 
Hurrah for our Red, White and Blue ! 



HI 



MOTHER'S ROCKING CHAIR 

Where does it rest today, 
The chair she left when she passed away? 
Where is the chair that is so dear 
Because it was hers — among mothers a 
peer? 

Does it rest in the same old spot 
She kept it on near the old "what not?" 
Or by careless hands has it been removed 
To a strange room, among friends unproved? 

Where is the dear old chair, 

That rocked trouble and care 

And sorrow away, — while on mother's 

breast 
I leaned for comfort and rest? 



VERSES OF LOVE 131 

Oh, tell me, tell me now! 
That I may seek it and tell it how 
I love it because it is hers! Where? 
Oh, where is that dear old chair? 

I found it at last ; 
Another knew its past, 
And, with tender care, 
Had placed the dear old chair. 

But it was in a room too strange, 
And felt beyond its range, — 
In a grand reception room. 
Where priceless orchids bloom ! 

So, after a long, long look. 
With loving hands I took 
It up, and carried it away 
To my kitchen bright, one day. 

There it felt at home again. 

And seemed to me to say — Pain, 

Nor sorrow, nor any care, 

Can be so bad while you've her dear chair. 

So I knelt and said a prayer, 
By that loved, armless chair. . . . 
And mother's spirit hovered near me, 
And I felt — good, you know, and free. 



132 VERSES OF LOVE 

Free from Life's fitful fever! 

Free for Time, the weaver, 

To make of my life something good ! 

I felt God my prayer had understood. 

For my Mother There near the Throne 

Had interpreted for her own. 

And I felt God would be lenient with her 

child— 
That His Judgment would be mild. 

Oh, my son, cherish that chair! 

She was your mother, too. Prayer 

For you she made, as in it she rocked you 

to sleep 
In your baby days whene'er you did weep. 

Never paint that chair nor its scars 
Seek to hide ; for each scar, though it mars 
Tells a story to those who understand ! 
Love that chair! and feel laid on you 
Mother's loving (spirit) hand. 

Keep it in a kitchen bright. 

Near a "what-not" — and near a window, 

light; 
And near a stove in winter-time — 
A little removed when summer changes the 

clime. 



VERSES OF LOVE 138 

Keep it neat and keep it clean, 
Its sacredness never demean. 
Keep it in your home and heart, 
From that chair never part. 

You will find as you grow older, 
Even, yes, as you grow bolder, 
That Mother's chair possesses charm 
That is magic to help keep you from harm. 

For as you look upon it, you will see 

All the goodness of her life rise up before 

thee; 
And you'll know she looks from Heaven 

upon you, my dear, 
And you'll want her to be proud of you, my 

dear. 

And out in the world you will go. 
And to all who love you you will show 
The stuff of which you are made, dear, 
The best that is in you, "indade," dear. 

Then keep, oh keep, that dear old chair ! 
By it kneel to say your evening prayer. 
And think of Mother (grandma to you) and 

think of me ; 
And keep, oh keep, your spirit free! 



